05 April, 2017

Many of the
victims were seen to be choking and fainting following the attack,
and some had foam coming out of their mouths, according to medical
sources who described the symptoms as related to a gas attack, as
cited by media reports.

Pictures
circulated by activists showed members of the volunteer White Helmets
rescue group using hoses to wash down the injured, as well as two men
with white foam around their mouths.

The
pro-opposition Edlib Media Centre (EMC) also posted photos of people
receiving treatment online, with some images showing what appeared to
be the bodies of at least seven children in the back of a pick-up
truck, France 24 reported.

Later a
rocket slammed into a hospital treating the victims of the alleged
gas attack, according to an AFP correspondent.

[...]

The Syrian
National Coalition, an alliance of opposition groups, has accused
President Bashar Assad's government of carrying out the gas attack
and demanded a UN investigation.

The National
Coalition demands the Security Council convene an emergency
session...open an immediate investigation and take the necessary
measures to ensure the officials, perpetrators and supporters are
held accountable," the body said in a statement, as quoted by
France 24.

The UN
Commission of Inquiry on Syria said it is looking into the alleged
gas attack, as well as the hospital attack, stressing that the use of
chemical weapons and any deliberate targeting of medical facilities
"would amount to war crimes and serious violations of human
rights law."

"It is
imperative for perpetrators of such attacks to be identified and held
accountable," the commission said, as quoted by Reuters.

[...]

The Syrian
army has denied allegations that it was behind the attack, despite
allegations from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other
pro-opposition groups.

"We
deny completely the use of any chemical or toxic material in Khan
Sheikhoun town today and the army has not used nor will use in any
place or time, neither in past or in future," the army said in a
statement, as quoted by Reuters.

Earlier, a
Syrian military source told Reuters that Damascus had not used
chemical weapons, and dismissed the accusations as rebel propaganda.

The army
"has not and does not use them, not in the past and not in the
future, because it does not have them in the first place," the
source said.

AFP also
reported that a Syrian security source called the gas attack report a
"false accusation."

“Based on
the reports it might be that the Syrian Army targeted a place that
was used as a chemical weapons factory or that stocked chemicals by
the rebels,” Jamal Wakeem, a professor of history and international
relations at the Lebanese University in Beirut, told RT.

Wakeem said
he doesn’t believe the Syrian Army would be so “desperate” as
to use chemical weapons, given the fact that it has been “achieving
major success on various fronts.”

He went on
to state that although rebels have previously accused the Syrian
government and Russian military of using chemical weapons, that news
“turned out to be false,” noting that there was instead evidence
that rebels had used chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq.

The Russian
military said in a statement that it did not conduct any airstrikes
in the Idlib Governorate.